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Hawks Bay is nearing a raceday return with trainer Neil Dyer not ruling out aiming the Kyneton Iron Horse towards three straight Darwin Cup successes despite fears over a huge weight impost.

Hawks Bay is seven weeks into his latest preparation with Dyer likely to ramp up the seven-year-olds work over the coming fortnight.

“He’s been in work for about seven weeks and he will be looking for a jumpout or trial at the end of next week,” Dyer said.

His first up run will come after a successful Darwin Cup raid last winter which resulted in an unfortunate suspensory ligament injury.

Hawks Bay’s return to full fitness has been a gradual process since returning to Victoria from the Northern Territory.

“When he left Darwin last year we were icing it up about three times a day for a couple of weeks,” Dyer said.

“When he was ready to travel back to Melbourne, he went straight to Shepparton and had a stem cell operation.

“After that he went out for a three or four month spell at our new property near Kyneton.

“He’s close to trialling and everything is looking as good as gold.

“He shouldn’t be far off of a short race.”

Dyer will kick the Black Hawk gelding off over 1200m and will do his racing in Melbourne for the majority of this preparation.

“Placing him around this time of year will be the trouble,” Dyer said.

“I am going to use either Warren Huntly or Dean Lester to help me select races for him.

“That is going to be a bit of a headache but we are going to just have to run in a 1200m Open Handicap and rise in distance from there.

“2000m is his pest distance.”

A Group placed, stakes winning galloper, Hawks Bay is of course best known for taking out the 2011 and 2012 renewals of the Darwin Cup.

Carrying 64.5kg and under an injury cloud, Hawks Bay last year braved out a stride for stride battle with Bolton who did edge past him at the 100m.

Hawks Bay lifted himself off the canvas to deliver one of the most thrilling Darwin Cup victories ever witnessed.

The emphatic win is likely the final time Hawks Bay will race in Darwin with the galloper expected to be allocated even more than the 64.5kg he lumped to victory last year.

“As far as a Darwin trip goes again it is probably doubtful but you never know,” Dyer said.

“We’ll play it by ear.

“After winning the Cup he would have gotten 1kg or 1.5kg maximum.

“If he gets back a couple of ratings points, you never know.

“Don’t be surprised if you see him back up there. It all depends whether our plan can come into place.”

In Hawks Bay’s favour though surrounding a Darwin return is the fact he’s a proven weight carrier.

“Why he gets away with it is that he is such a big strong athlete,” Dyer said.

“He has got a high cruising speed and a bit of a turn of foot. Because he is so big and strong he can carry the weight.”

This was evident during his slender 2012 Darwin Cup against Bolton.

“When you put the power to weight ratio of Hawks Bay to comparison with a horse like Bolton who is a much smaller horse carrying 57/58kg, things are probably harder on them than it is on Hawky,” Dyer said.

“When it looked like Bolton had gotten past him by a foot, it was because you can see Hawks Bay’s backside like the other horse had already gone past him.

“When you look at the nose end they were actually pretty level.

“I watched the replay a fair few times. It was a big thrill. Because we had so much trouble leading up to the race it was probably the most emotional win out of his whole lot, just to get away with it.”